Siracusa Nera
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery

Total Beverage has some of these and the bottle date is from 2018 lol. I really enjoyed this, the base stout is very solid to me on its own and then it's like this boozy soaked chocolate raisin.

*archived rating*

 

Poured into a Dogfish Head snifter, this jet black beer allows no light to pass. A thin, dark chestnut head is bubbly and quickly forms a thick ring. Spotty lace is left on the glass. When held to a bright light a dark ruby red halo is barely perceptible.

The aroma opens with dark chocolate and sweet, dark roasted malts. Boozy sourness is mild, while prunes and plums lead to fudge as it warms. There is a lot going on here.

The flavor is less impressive than the aroma, with baker's chocolate, charred malt, and black coffee, each in equal proportion. The finish is long, dominated by charred malt. It has a moderate booziness.

Powerful alcohol with modest heat attempts to cut the full body of this beer. The texture is similar to neoprene, and the carbonation is lively.

This is a decent beer to enjoy while relaxing or with casual conversation, however, it overpowers even an intense Gruaré cheese.

 

 

On tap at Dogfish Head Taproom and Kitchen in Milton, DE.

This one pours a very dark black color, with a small head, and not much lacing.

This smells like heavy duty roast, tobacco, smoke, leather, tannic wine, and oak.

This sounded pretty interesting, but it ultimately did not work for me. The wine additions didn’t add a ton of sweetness, which kind of seemed needed, as the base stout is super roasty and smoky. I think the wine added some leathery, bitter, and tobacco-like notes, with very little fruit characteristics. The oak aging only served to add more bitterness.

I also think the thinner body didn’t help with the more intense bitter characteristics of this – they might have been able to get away with these flavors if the body was creamier and thicker, a la Founders Imperial Stout, or something like that.

I like the idea behind this, and I like a lot of Dogfish Head beer still, but this one didn’t quite work for me.

 

 

 

 

very dark thin foam, very dark and almost black

fruity and boozy. slight oak, coffee and winey notes.

taste: coffee comes out through very much. subdues a lot of the more complex, tart notes.

mouthfeel: quite fizzy, heavy, and boozy.

overall: fine for a stout, i like the fruitiness but it gets overpowered very easily and the overall flavor is a few too many clashing flavors.

 

12 oz bottle, vintage 2017, poured into a snifter at 47 degrees F:
L - dark with a hazelnut head that lingered
S - raisins, grape must?
T - strange taste, a bit bitter, like tart molasses
F - medium mouthfeel with medium carbonation
O - This one may have aged a bit too long

Poured into a small chalice: color is solid black, head is light tan and presents 1/4 inch thick and dissipates quickly to a frothy top with lacing cling on the sides.

Smell is slight roasted malt blended with grape/cherry notes from the syrah must, not overly sweet aroma, hints of chocolate, unique blend of dryer/bitter RIS base with slight sweetness from syrah must.

Taste is similar with RIS and roasted malt upfront with slight chocolate and grape/cherry/raisin/berry mix flavors from the must; plums and chocolate covered cherry flavors seem to emerge with warmth, light, limited oaky vanilla notes.

Mouthfeel is low carbonation, moderate sweetness, light drying bitterness and alcohol.

Overall an excellent RIS variant - really like the vinous but light sweetness provided by the syrah must - seems to soften the potential booziness of an RIS while providing depth; oaky notes are limited but noticeable.

Solid Blackness, rich brown head, gets slimmer as we go.

In the nose: char, bourbon barrels, anise, molasses, deep dark chocolate.

In the mouth: Big sweetness, well tempered. So smooth, yet robust, big-boned, boisterous and bodacious. What's in this? "A Russian Imperial Stout with Syrah grape must added and aged in oak."
Well, there you go. Some vanilla, toast, coconut, and then the wine comes through. Mmmm, yes.
Full bodied, full flavored. I like it. It is good.

 

 

 

Bottled 9/27/18

So I’ve only had one beer in this vein before, Night Shift’s stout with pinot noir grapes, and the grape just didn’t shine through all that much. Hopefully that changes with this one given thier reputation for strange beers

Pours a very dark brown with just a ring of light brown bubbles and leaves no lacing

It’s funny, this smells like your run of the mill stout, roasty and malty with some smoked notes, and the grape is just a background note. Even more subtle suggestions of vanilla and oak

Wow, the grape comes in right away in the taste, almost giving this a tartness, very jammy and intense, but not overbearing if that makes any sense. After the initial fruitiness (and slight barrel character) subsides, there is an intense creamy roast, with notes of black coffee and caramel that lasts long into the finish, but still with some dark fruit notes and a touch of nuttiness. Complex as all hell, some solid oak radiating throughout the sip

Obviously full bodied, this has light tingly carbonation and doesn’t finish too heavy. Not overly sweet in finish, just a bit chalky if anything

God damn, this might be one of my favorite stouts ever. Admittedly, I’m a DFH super fan, but I can put all bias aside and proudly say this is an incredible beer, and for only $4 a bottle. Unquestionably picking up more

EDIT 9/27/21 - 3 years after bottling

I decided to set some of this aside to have it at 3 and 5 years. It hasn’t changed a whole lot, but the light grape in the aroma has matured into chewy raisin. It tends to be a bit more roast forward in taste now, mostly on the swallow. On the other hand, it’s a bit more creamy as well. It’s lost a bit of balance but nothing that affects the score